I’ve been reading alot about toilets lately. It’s exciting to see that the enthusiasm many people have for cloth nappies and reusable sanitary cloths has extended to other bathroom activities.

There’s  Crunchy Chicken’s annual cloth wipe challenge which involves using fabric cloth instead of toilet paper for either number one or number two depending on your enthusiasm. Even those the cloths need to be washed, it reduces the use of water in manufacturing toilet paper, oil, energy and of course tree production. It also saves money.

pic from Treehugger

I was interested by her comment

I know when I first started out, I felt like I was doing something illicit. Like wiping my ass on the bath towels and not telling anyone. Or picking my nose and wiping it on the carpet. Well, you get the idea. Once you get over that strange feeling of wrongness and embrace the softness of cloth wipes, one can become rather giddy with excitement. Or something like that.

There’s also a murmur of interest in DIY bidets, either clip or or more organic means such as a garden hose trigger gun (hehe). Find out more here

I’m really excited to hear that “No Impact Man” film is opening in the US.

The doco is about Colin Beavan who decides to completely eliminate his personal impact on the environment for the next year.

It means eating vegetarian, buying only local food, and turning off the refrigerator. It also means no elevators, no television, no cars, buses, or airplanes, no toxic cleaning products, no electricity, no material consumption, and no garbage.

No problem – at least for Colin – but he and his family live in Manhattan. So when his espresso-guzzling, retail-worshipping wife Michelle and their two-year-old daughter are dragged into the fray, the No Impact Project has an unforeseen impact of its own.

Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein’s film provides an intriguing inside look into the experiment that became a national fascination and media sensation, while examining the familial strains and strengthened bonds that result from Colin and Michelle’s struggle with their radical lifestyle change.

Want to find out more? You can check out the No Impact Blog and even try the challenge yourself!

Further to Chris’ article on living in small spaces, I came across the website of David Michael Bruno and his 100 Thing Challenge. In November 2008, David pledged to live for one year with only 100 personal items. All other items had to be thrown away/donated/gifted. If he buys one thing he has to remove another.

I’m an extremely poor de-clutterer like most crafters, so I am somewhat aghast at such a concept but also secretly envious. Crafting (mostly) with a recycled/upcycled ethos means I am constantly sourcing materials from charity shops, other crafters, haberdashery… So I challenged myself last year to craft for a month without buying any materials to add my craft. It was actually quite hard in some respects. In some ways I realised how I had been preferencing the urge to shop over the urge to create. Consumerism seems so much safer than creativity. No risk or making a mistake or being judged for your efforts. I had in the past surrounded myself with vintage and recycled goods as a testament to my aesthetic.

That said, we are moving house soon, so I find myself in a position of having to declutter. It’s another challenge! Argh!

I enjoyed follow the series on the Ready Made blog about going a week without various environmental harms (they’ve done plastic previously and this week attention was turned to processed foods.

The writer, Amy Palanjian plans a week without “anything that is made in a factory/comes in packaging” with some interesting results. Her account provides lovely photographs of each meal served, recipes and a interesting commentary on the experience. I was particularly interested in the issue of time as Palanjian spends a lot of time making initial meals (lessened with the use of leftovers on later days), with a considered response to a right wing newspaper article equating the lack of ‘women in the kitchen’ to women at work.

Palanjian also does quite a bit of detective work, even managing to find several sources of unprocessed chocolate! She also reveals several health benefits she has experienced as a consequence of the new way of eating. She also comments it also turned out to be a week of me deciding to recommit to supporting my local sustainable growers and saving money by cooking everything myself. Inspiration for anyone’s kitchen…

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We’re lucky in Australia that waste reduction is mandatory in the sense that all of us have recycle bins in our homes. So we all have an entrenched mindfullness about recycling and such. But how much are you recycling? If you’re like us the recycle bin is constantly overfull and the normal bin less than a third. What if we were to buy less things that needed to be recycled in the first place, or only things that could be reused?

Pretty everyone these days knows that plastic bags are a no no. In most instances we can avoid them. But how about encouraging other people to stop or at least reduce their usage? I for one am sick of the way retail staff still reach for the bags without thinking. I’m also seeing people use them for everything even fruit that needs peeling.

I know there’s been talk about baning them in various areas and some businesses charge for them. Green bags are a good start but in reality they’re not all that environmentally friendly.

But what if you could do more?